Ok, I am dead serious about getting in shape. I recently purchased a Weider Total Body Works 5000 (Total Gym knock-off with 50 lbs of added resistance bands). I have just been sort of focusing on upper-body strength, since I am rather happy with my lower body (I tend to ride and walk a lot). I've been trying to work out at least 5 days a week, I guess. It's been about two weeks. I started out easy the first week, and now I am really starting to push myself. I decided to splurge (perhaps unnecessarily) on N.O.-Xplode and some Optimum 100% Whey Protein. The Xplode has really made a difference in my workout. Now, I'm only about 5'9" and ~145 lbs. My arms aren't that big, and my chest and stomach could definitely use definition. I've got a little bit of a tummy, but it's REALLY hard for me to gain weight. I do a lot of manual labor at work, and tend to walk/ride a lot (no car). I haven't really figured out a set training schedule/routine, and need some help figuring it out. All I've been doing is just pushing myself to about 10 of each exercise, switching to a different exercise, and then another, and then another, and then going back to that one in sort of a cycle. Usually starts out with about 10 butterflies, then 10 chest presses, 10 arm pull overs, 10 bicep curls, 10 seated rows, and then 10 pull-ups. I work on a medium incline (dead in the middle of all of the settings) with about 25 extra pounds added on. So I have no idea what I'm really working with, but I felt my original setting was getting too easy and this makes me sweat and really feel pumped/tight when I am done.

Any ideas, comments, suggestions or complaints?

Anyone?

This machine is more of a full body circuit exerciser than a mass builder, but if used correctly, you can get results.
 
You need to structure a workout that has a measurable amount of resistance and countable reps and sets.  You need to be able to track progress and know when to up the intensity.  Start with setting up your routine, and then tweak it and then track your results.

I've tweaked my workout to have more structure. I've still got it on the middle setting (I have no idea what that equates to weight wise). I bought this because it was pretty cheap, and figured I could get a decent workout on it. I'm not looking to get gigantic, but just at least noticeably bigger. I've added on an additional 3 bands on the middle incline setting which equates to about 37.5 pounds. It's enough to make me noticeable struggle, but still be able to do it. I changed my routine to 4x10 of the following exercises butterflies, chest presses, arm pullovers, arm curls, seated rows, seated high pulls, and pull-ups. I really have no idea what to do since I don't know anyone who actively works out on a similar machine (probably for good reason), and have recently been feeling like I wasted money on it. I do like working out on it, though.

I'm really looking for tips and critiques. I can probably assume I am trying to tackle too much in one workout.